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Association of Herpes Simplex Virus Testing with Hospital Length of Stay for Infants ≤60 Days of Age Undergoing Evaluation for Meningitis
Author(s) -
Aronson Paul L,
Cruz Andrea T,
Freedman Stephen B,
Balamuth Fran,
GretherJones Kendra L,
Lyons Todd W,
Fleming Alesia H,
Louie Jeffrey,
Mistry Rakesh D,
Garro Aris C,
Shah Samir S,
Nigrovic Lise E
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of hospital medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.128
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1553-5606
pISSN - 1553-5592
DOI - 10.12788/jhm.3202
Subject(s) - medicine , herpes simplex virus , meningitis , pediatrics , virology , emergency medicine , virus
Although neonatal herpes simplex virus (HSV) causes significant morbidity, utilization of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) HSV polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test remains variable. Our objective was to examine the association of CSF HSV PCR testing with length of stay (LOS) in a 20‐center retrospective cohort of hospitalized infants aged ≤60 days undergoing evaluation for meningitis after adjustment for patient‐level factors and clustering by center. Of 20,496 eligible infants, 7,399 (36.1%) had a CSF HSV PCR test performed, and 46 (0.6% of those tested) had a positive test. Infants who had a CSF HSV PCR test performed had a 23% longer hospital LOS (incident rate ratio 1.23; 95% CI: 1.14‐1.33). Targeted CSF HSV PCR testing may mitigate the impact on LOS for low‐risk infants.